Florence Speedway
Illinois standout works his way into Hall of Fame
By Todd Turner
DirtonDirt.com managing editor
Randy Korte (heathlawsonphotos.com)
UNION, Ky. (Aug. 11) — During Sunoco North-South 100 weekends over the last 20 years or so, most National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame inductees come to Florence Speedway to relax, enjoy a little racing and simply soak up the accolades of being celebrated among the sport’s all-time best.
But on a steamy Friday afternoon at the bottom of the track’s sloping pit area, 2023 Hall of Fame inductee Randy Korte of Highland, Ill., was doing anything but relaxing. He was laying under the race car of longtime Randy Korte Consulting client Dane Dacus trying to figure out how to make the Rocket Chassis go faster.
Korte eventually noticed a group of friends gathering nearby and he rolled out from underneath the car, climbed to his feet and walked over to greet the foursome. Among them was Korte's former crew chief and longtime crew member — he goes only by the name “Gator” — who wrapped Korte up in a hug that doubled as congratulatory and heartfelt.
“If you’d have stayed there for a couple of more minutes,” Gator joked, gesturing toward the black No. 54, "I was going to come over and lay under it with you.”
No one was surprised that on a weekend when Korte was honored along with fellow racers Booper Bare, the late Jackie Boggs, Mike Boland and Rick Egersdorf that he’d be working hard for consulting clients and racers Dacus of Arlington, Tenn., and Mike Harrison, like Korte also from Highland, Ill.
“He woke me up at 9:30 beating on sheetmetal,” Dacus said with a smile after he and Korte watched Keith Berner make minor repairs on an Accu-Force Spring Smasher in the Dacus trailer.
“I’ve been working the whole time I’ve been here,” Korte said. “If I’m not working or not doing this stuff, I'm going crazy. So that's what I need to be doing. It’s all good; there's nothing wrong with that.”
The bald 58-year-old, who will be joined by family members at Saturday’s induction, downplayed the ceremonies.
“I said I was just gonna go over there and give about a minute-long speech and I'm done,” Korte said. “I’ve never been a big talker.”
If Korte were to detail his career over 30 years, he’d have plenty to talk about in covering more than 300 victories and two DIRTcar (formerly United Midwestern Promoters) weekly titles (1997 and ’06). After dominating St. Louis, Mo.-area tracks early in his career, he branched out to win a pair of UDTRA national touring events and 13 DIRTcar Summer Nationals races among other special events. He was also the 2006 Northern Allstars champion and Summer Nationals runner-up to Dennis Erb Jr. in 2009. Korte's richest victory came with a $15,000 payday in 2004 at Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway in Calvert City, Ky.
Despite battling cancer — multiple myeloma that still requires regular chemotherapy treatments — the last five seasons of his career, Korte's proud that he went out with a bang in 2014, piecing together longtime sponsorships for one last successful season before retiring and launching Randy Korte Consulting.
"I did it my way,” Korte said. “We won 14 races that last year I raced. See ya. I’m done.”
Now he’s operating his successful business with Dacus and Harrison, in a Steve Lampley-owned car that Korte maintains and prepares, among many other clients. The teams decided to come to Florence in part to support Korte’s induction, but they figured they’d compete, too. Korte wouldn't have had it any other way as it gave him a chance to work throughout the weekend.
“I feel like I get more out of this than I did out of (racing),” said Korte, who has never been tempted to race again after his retirement. “I don’t know, it’s just so much nicer doing this than driving a car. I mean, the pressure's not there. You know what I'm saying? I mean, there's still pressure, you still want to run good. You still have the competitiveness, but it's not all on you. You know what I'm saying? So, it's like I like this better than I did driving.”
Dacus has developed a close relationship with Korte, who took over his car’s preparation that allowed Dacus to continue competing without spending late-night hours away from his wife and kids in the race shop.
“That’s like I told him, 'Korte, I've kind of caught you at the end of my career. I wish I would have had you 15 years ago. You know, there's no telling what kind of races we could’ve won.' And he was like, 'Yeah, but I was still racing then.’ It wasn’t even an option then,” Dacus said. “But he's extended my racing career a couple of years with me. It’s just been awesome to deal with him. I know he’s going to do it 100 percent and he’s going to do it the right way or he's not going to do it at all.”
Korte has been battling health issues for as long as Dacus has worked with him, but Dacus said it hasn’t dampened Korte’s relentless work ethic.
“I’ll call him up, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Aw, I just got done with chemo treatments. I'm heading to the shop now,’ ” Dacus said. “Or ‘I’m on my way back from Rocket (Chassis in Shinnston, W.Va.).’ Very rarely you call him and he’s not at the shop. I mean the dude just works nonstop. He’s been a huge blessing to me, really everybody he deals with it. He’s just been great to deal with.”
Harrison, a longtime modified standout, watched Korte at Highland Speedway early in his career and is longtime friends with his fellow Highland resident. It’s been only the past 10 months that he’s gotten to work closely with Korte in driving Lampley’s No. 33 Late Model.
“It’s been fun getting to work with him, and then this whole deal of him getting inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Harrison said. “I think we was all together last year when (it was announced), so it was pretty cool. And yeah, then now we're here and get to see it all and enjoy it and get to be with him.”
Harrison is an early-riser as a cooperative farmer and he has a kindred soul in Korte.
“Hell, there’s times he’ll call me at 6:30 or 7 o'clock in the morning, you know, ‘Hey, I’ve been out at the shop since 4 or 5 o’clock, so I’ve been at the shop just working.’ It’s like, 'Damn Randy, you could slow down a little bit,' but no, he don't slow down at all,” Harrison said. “And that's what he says, you know, with everything he's gone through with his health stuff, he says that's the best thing he can do is just keep working and keep doing what he loves, because it keeps his mind off everything else.”
Korte said that keeping his nose to the grindstone was instilled by his father Charlie, a longtime supporter of Korte’s racing who died May 29.
"It's just the way my dad always taught me, hard work gets you somewhere,” Korte said. “And that just that's all I know. If you want something bad enough, you got to work hard. That's just kind of how he's always taught me.”
While Dacus is aware of Korte’s hard work, he also appreciates his perspective in living with a potentially fatal disease for 13 years. Korte doesn’t sweat the small stuff and Dacus often remembers him saying that he doesn’t worry about things because, frankly, he’ll be dead in a few years. Perhaps Korte’s outlook has contributed to keeping him alive and productive in the sport he loves so much. Saturday, he’ll receive a fitting tribute.
"I was gonna be (at Florence) regardless, so we brought the race car,” Dacus said. “I wasn't gonna miss it either way. So it's big deal for him. I’m proud for him. He's worked hard. He’s one of the good guys in the industry.”
